Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ncar!unmvax!uokmax!d.cs.okstate.edu!ong
From: ong@d.cs.okstate.edu (ONG ENG TENG)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Need Recommendations for Buying a PC
Message-ID: <1991Mar30.173844.1977@d.cs.okstate.edu>
Date: 30 Mar 91 17:38:44 GMT
References: <1991Mar30.221031.360@csc.canterbury.ac.nz>
Organization: Oklahoma State University
Lines: 41

From article <1991Mar30.221031.360@csc.canterbury.ac.nz>, by cctr132@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Nick FitzGerald, CSC, Uni. of Canterbury, NZ):
> Not wanting to start wp/editor flame-war 3000 but I'll add my two cents . . .

You got to be kidding.  Calling your greatest dragon spit 2cents...

> Consider yourself lucky!  Several users that I am the first line of support
> for have chronic problems with WP 5.0 and 5.1 corrupting their document
> files.  (No, it is not user error.  I'm hesitant to say it's a bug, as it's
> one of those things that happens often enough to be "well known", but is not
> reproducible.)  Further I don't know why people have stuck with WP since 4.2
> (and earlier) - 5.0 couldn't correctly read a large proportion of 4.2
> documents, and I have a 5.0 document that 5.1 can't cope with, despite what
> the manual says.  I do actually - it's the same reason that so many people
> stuck with WordStar when it had clearly fallen far behind the other word
> processors - after having invested so much time into learning the beast,
> people weren't going to change easily.

Yes, yes.  I too do some first line support for WP here with tens of
secretaries in the college using 5.1.  I have YET to call WP for support
and has YET to hear a secretary complain about the embedded codes of WP.
In fact, some of them are grateful that WP let them do that.
It could be a different sub-version of 5.1 we are using, or that 
different people are willing to spend different amount
of time on their word processor.

> In its current incarnation WP is trying to be "too much for too many" - its
> formatting system and character based display/interface make it clumsy for
> many of the things that it can do, but maybe the Windows version due out
> mid-year will make much more of its potential _easily_ accessible.   (If
> the kludge that is its current mouse/pull-down menu interface is anything to
> go by though, I wouldn't hold my breath.)

"Too much too many" is just another word for "Oh gee, that's 
too hard/complicated for me".  If I cannot handle a word processor, 
I would try to leave it alone, instead of thrashing it.  
Because it just a waste of time.  But if someone 
were to thrash my favorite word processor, then I would try to 
defend it.  I doubt anybody is putting a gun to your head demanding
that you have to do first-line support for WP.  Go persuade your
users to change to other word processors if you think they are
better.